Near room temperature hexagonal multiferroic (Yb0.25Lu0.25In0.25Sc0.25)FeO3 high-entropy ceramics

Abstract

In this work, h-RFeO3 multiferroic high-entropy ceramics are designed by introducing high-entropy concept with four elements (Yb, Lu, In, Sc) for R site. (Yb0.25Lu0.25In0.25Sc0.25)FeO3 high-entropy ceramics are prepared by the standard solid-state reaction methods. The samples prepared with precursors were identified to crystalize in the pure hexagonal structure with polar space group (P63cm) at room temperature. By the analysis of the variable XRD patterns, it is speculated that the ferroelectric transition temperature of the sample is above 773 K. Meanwhile, three magnetic anomalies are determined for high-entropy ceramics, which is the antiferromagnetic transition at Néel temperature TÑ280 K, the spin-reorientation temperature TSR∼145 K and the reasonable ferromagnetic-like clusters without long ordering in TN < T < TA (∼397 K). Besides, it is observed that the peak intensity of the pyroelectric current around TN can be tuned by magnetic field, which is indicated the magnetoelectric coupling effect in (Yb0.25Lu0.25In0.25Sc0.25)FeO3 high-entropy ceramics. These results indicate the ferroelectric and antiferromagnetic orders are coexist in the h-RFeO3 high-entropy ceramics as promising near room temperature multiferroic materials, and it is an effective way to obtain a new type single-phase multiferroic materials.